Midnight Cry Of The Deathbird

Duration

Genre

Station

Radio 3

Station

Radio 3

Episodes

FirstBroadcast

Comments

20121028

The Gothic Imagination. The Midnight Cry of the Deathbird a version of the classic silent film Nosferatu for radio.

Poet Amanda Dalton was inspired to tell this story by her love of silent film and an interest in how we communicate with each other. Fascinated by silence , Nosferatu led her to imagine a version in which Ellen is deaf, living in a world of miscommunication and misinformation. In The Midnight Cry of the Deathbird Mandy uses poetry, prose, song , monologue and dialogue to explore the ways people both talk to and misciommunicate with each other.

When the film Nosferatu was made, soldiers were returning to Germany from WW1 broken men. An influenza epidemic spread through the country at the same time, killing many people. In The Midnight Cry of the Deathbird, Amanda Dalton taps into this fear which is still relevant to us now, of silent illness and epidemics which arrive unnanounced and threaten our existence.

Roger - Roger Morlidge

Ellen Hutter - Sophie Woolley

The Nosferatu - Valerie Cutko

Thomas Hutter - Henry Devas

Bulwer - Conrad Nelson

Knockv - Terence Mann

Count Orlok - Malcolm Raeburn

Ruth - Ruth Alexander Rubin

Music composed and played by Olly Fox.

Directed in Salford by Susan Roberts.

Episodes

FirstBroadcast

Comments

20121028

The Gothic Imagination. The Midnight Cry of the Deathbird a version of the classic silent film Nosferatu for radio.

Poet Amanda Dalton was inspired to tell this story by her love of silent film and an interest in how we communicate with each other. Fascinated by silence , Nosferatu led her to imagine a version in which Ellen is deaf, living in a world of miscommunication and misinformation. In The Midnight Cry of the Deathbird Mandy uses poetry, prose, song , monologue and dialogue to explore the ways people both talk to and misciommunicate with each other.

When the film Nosferatu was made, soldiers were returning to Germany from WW1 broken men. An influenza epidemic spread through the country at the same time, killing many people. In The Midnight Cry of the Deathbird, Amanda Dalton taps into this fear which is still relevant to us now, of silent illness and epidemics which arrive unnanounced and threaten our existence.